Those of you that follow this blog know that it’s primarily about recipes, nutrition and other foodie things. But besides my passion for food, I am crazy about travelling (who isn’t!?). So here is my first travel post about the beaches of this little gorgeous Greek island called Zakynthos. This was definitely my best holiday in 2015 and those of you that follow me on Instagram might have already seen some of these pictures. I will make sure to post more travel posts from the previous locations I have visited and new ones.
Zakynthos, or also known as Zante is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, on the west side of Greece. I am not going to cover the popular facts about Zakynthos as you can easily read those somewhere else on the internet but I am just going to try and show you why this place impressed us so much. As usual we were planning our holiday last-minute and really wanted to go to a hot, sunny place that isn’t too far away and not too expensive. I had never really heard of Zakynthos before and the way I stumbled upon it on the internet is by looking at a picture of a beach that I remember having on a calendar in my room as a child. I remember dreaming about this beach (Navagio) and thinking it’s somewhere far far away like Bora Bora. Now I realise how funny that was because it turns out that beach wasn’t far away from my country at all as Bulgaria and Greece share a border. Of course, it’s a little bit further away from London but still easy to get to and not expensive at all as easyjet have a direct flight from London! To be honest I didn’t have great expectations as I know how holidays in Greece turn out sometimes but we ended up having an amazing time!
So here are the main things you need to know about this little island before you go there:
- Amazing nature, one of the greenest islands of Greece! So many beautiful beaches as well! There are more olive trees than any other plant on the island, you see them everywhere!
- You absolutely need a car rental in order to be able to explore the whole island. It’s much cheaper than taxi as well, costed us about 80£ for 7 days.
- You need swimming shoes, a snorkel and a mask.You don’t need to get those in advance, you can easily find them there as well but don’t go to any of those beaches below without these items as you will need them to explore!
Choosing the beach resort
There are quite a few resorts in Zakynthos, most of them are in the south-east side of the island. I can’t tell you anything about most of them as we decided to stay in Tsilivi and didn’t really visit the rest. I hear some resorts are busier but in general they are all crowded with tourists. Laganas seems to be the place if you are interested in clubbing and Zakynthos is the main town but there isn’t much to see there to be honest, that’s where most of the local people live. I think the resort you choose doesn’t matter that much because the beauty of Zakynthos is not there, it’s when you go and explore the real traditional villages and the beautiful beaches! We chose Tsilivi because it had a relatively good location, close to the airport and also because we found an affordable high-rated hotel on top of a cliff with a beautiful view! I can’t recommend the hotel enough! The staff, the quality of the room furnishing and the food in their restaurant was outstanding! It’s quite difficult to find a decent hotel in the crowded Greek resorts. The hotel was overlooking Tsilivi’s beach, which was nice but it’s nothing impressive compared to those beaches listed below, they are the main reason we visited this island.
Click on the pictures to see the full-size images.
The food
I found that a lot of the taverns in our resort (Tsilivi) didn’t have the greatest food but that’s normal for most resorts. After 1-2 days we managed to find the good places. Our hotel’s restaurant had excellent food, it seemed like quite a popular spot – Balcony restaurant. They have some traditional Greek food as well as European cuisine. The wrapped baked feta cheese, the Saganaki prawns, the mussels, the house salad and the vegetarian patties were amazing! The other restaurant we liked was the Ideal restaurant, which has a really old-school tavern interior but they serve very large portions and the best thing there is the fish. Very large, fresh portions of grilled fish that was absolutely delicious! One thing all restaurants in Zakynthos have in common is that most of the time they give you free drinks to try and keep you there for longer like a beer or homemade wine and they always give you their traditional Zakynthian dessert at the end, again for free! In general I was eating Greek salad most of the time, my favourite traditional dish was the Saganaki prawns and I also loved the abundance of fruits and especially pomegranates! Sorry for the bad food pictures but I was in a rush to eat and quickly took them with my phone.
Click on the pictures to see the full-size images.
The beaches…
Just get in a car, find them on Google maps and go snorkelling in those crystal clear waters! Make sure to bring your swimming shoes, snorkel and mask!
Navagio
The most popular attraction there is Navagio beach or also known as the Shipwreck beach. You can only go to this beach by boat, the challenging part is finding a decent boat service that doesn’t involve 30 other tourists on the boat as well. The beach is quite far away from all the resorts and because of this it is quite expensive to hire a private boat. We actually only managed to enjoy the view from the cliff above as on the day we decided to go with a boat, the sea was really rough and we couldn’t reach the shore so we had to leave straight away. However when we went with the car to the cliff (on a different day), we saw the sunset and it was the most magical view ever. The sea was calm and crystal clear. When you visit the top, make sure you go to the end of the cliff and not just to the initial spot (like a little balcony) where most of the tourists are, you can’t really see the whole beach from there so keep walking further down!
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Xygia (Sulphur) beach
The reason Xygia is also known as Sulphur beach is because there are sulphur springs around it, which gives the water its white colour. Because of the sulphur the water smells a bit weird, it bothers some people but I really stopped noticing it after 10 minutes. The water is actually healing as it contains a lot of collagen as well (you know the thing they put in anti-ageing creams) so try to spend more time in the water! It’s the smallest beach I have ever seen, we went snorkelling around the cliffs and enjoyed a really peaceful day. There are some tourist groups that visit at times but because they come in a group together they don’t stay very long. There is also a small tavern on top of the hill with some great food and surprisingly clean toilet facilities! We really didn’t want the day to end!
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Marathonisi beach (Turtle island)
The Marathonisi beach is on a really small island, which you can reach with a boat in just 10-15 minutes. The island is called the Turtle island because it’s full of turtle nests and it is in the shape of a turtle. There are no buildings on the island and no toilet facilities so you can’t stay very long but it’s definitely worth going to! The water was amazing! We chose to hire a private boat to get there as you can see a lot of beautiful views around that area, including the Keri caves and the sea is normally calm so they let you drive the speed boat on your own. It costed 70 € for 3 hours from the Agios port (make sure to negotiate, they will lower the price). We drove to the port and left our car at the parking. You can get a boat from other ports as well, but I recommend going there as you can also walk to the Cameo island over a bridge. The Cameo island is a good place for a drink, it’s a bit of a party spot during the day with great music and a beautiful view but just a tiny beach, not sure if you can call it a beach but it’s also worth visiting.
Click on the pictures to see the full-size images.
Porto Limnionas
Probably our favourite place out of all beaches. We liked it so much we spent 3 out of our 7 day holiday going there. I was surprised as I knew it’s just a cliff with no real sandy beach but after we went there I realised it’s the water there that makes the experience great. It’s a massive natural pool between the cliffs, where you can dive and snorkel for hours and see fish and lots of underwater nature! The water is so clear you can see the bottom of the sea 7-10 metres below you. You feel totally safe as the water is so calm, it’s like a pool. We swam to the other side of the cliffs and managed to reach some caves, it was definitely the highlight of our trip!
In addition, on top of the cliff there is a tavern and lots of sunbeds. Two sunbeds with an umbrella and a table are just 2,50 € for the whole day and you can ask the staff to bring you the food right there and have lunch with the most amazing view ever. We ended up staying for dinner there twice as well and watched the sunset!
Visiting those places and getting away from the tourist crowds made our trip amazing. Again, I can’t stress enough that it wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t rented a car! With a car you drive around the island and you are also able to see small authentic villages that are extremely beautiful. Overall we managed to have a very relaxing holiday as a couple and visited some truly amazing beaches! We will definitely go back there again! :)
